Art

The artist study depicts the Tree of Life bearing the fruit of the 12 Apostles. It emphasizes our heritage as Holy Cross since our Tree of Life is the Cross of Christ and our history of displaying the Twelve Apostles on the altar reredos.

Brochures with more details are available at the church, in the Parish Office and soon online. Donations can be made in the name of a loved one and the artist can even fashion one of the apostles to resemble someone in your family tree (with beard of course!)

I was delighted our third graders at morning mass knew the four marks of the church today, since it wasn't a question they would be anticipating based on today's gospel. Jesus sent the Twelve in mission two-by-two to preach and heal. Our church traces its origin back to Jesus' Twelve disciples, hence the 4th mark or characteristic of the church, apostolic.

Installation of the reredos painting above the altar at Holy Cross has begun. It should be securely affixed by later this afternoon and ready for unveiling by the students at tomorrow morning's mass with the school children and parishioners of Holy Cross. The painting will be formally blessed at the Sunday 10:30 AM mass.

Today we celebrate one of Holy Cross' "Window Saints." King Louis IX of France was canonized for his piety, charity to the poor and defense of the Church from Turkish incursions into North Africa and the Near East.

King Louis took St. Francis as a patron and is closely associated with the Secular Order of the Franciscans. This connection led to his being included in the collection of stained glass from St. Francis' Church which is now proudly in our possession.

He died of infectious disease during his second crusade. The advice he gave to his son is an amazing instruction to a Catholic ruler not to compartmentalize his faith from his governance.

Let us pray to lead integral Catholic lives at work, at prayer and at play. The love of Christ should fill and overflow any and all arbitrary compartments.

This Lent our Adult Faith Enrichment program will focus on prayer and art. We will be using a newly published book Art and Prayer by Msgr. Timothy Verdon. The book is lavishly illustrated with color photographs of the works of art discussed in the text. We will order only as many books as we need, so please make a reservation with the Parish Office or obtain your own copy. The requested donation if the parish orders your book is $ 25.

“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart;

and you will find rest for your selves.

For my yoke is easy

and my burden light."

Christus Consolator, as the image of Christ sculpted by Thorwaldsen has been called, has been reproduced widely. The original stands in a lobby at Johns Hopkins Medical Center, another is in Salt Lake City, Utah.

art of stained glass window making with a spotlight on D'Ascenszo Studios and Edwin Sharkey, the company and designer of our newly acquired windows.

The surprise of the evening was a full sized, color print of our St. Kieran window, who even in his slightly pixellated state look magnificent. I think we'll have St. Kieran make an appearance at all our masses on the weekend of our groundbreaking, April 14th.

The window shows Kieran holding his crozier as founder of the Monastery at Clonmacnoise. The monastery itself is pictured at his feet in the background along the shores of the River Shannon. A hair shirt protrudes ever so slightly from underneath his fine garments.

Remember to get to Wednesday night's talk on stained glass in America by artisan Joe Beyer of Beyer Studios. Joe will tell us all about the manufacture, design and inconography in the St. Francis windows we are lucky enough to acquire.

You may wonder why I am writing about a stained glass craftsman who lived from 1871 - 1954? No mystery, really. He is the maker of some beautiful windows we may acquire for the renovated church.

Photo of Nicola D'Ascenzo from an article in the May 1936 issue of The Rotarian

D'Ascenzo immigrated to the United States from Italy in 1892 and studied painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. He then taught painting until he could open up his own studio. The artist championed a Gothic revival in stained glass making and became reknowned for his own style of glass with strong reds and blues and a more disciplined style compared with Tiffany and LaFarge, especially for his ecclesiastical glass.

D'Ascenzo Studios thrived even during the Great Depression - a tribute to the reputation and skill of this master craftsman, whose Philadelphia studios were not so much a factory as an artisan's guild.

His works are collected and traded at auction, and his stained glass still bathes admirers in colored light all around the world. Here are just a few of his commissions: The Seven Ages of Man window in Shakespeare's Folger Library in Washington, DC; the chapel windows in the Washington Memorial Chapel in Valley Forge, PA; "Nipper" the RCA dog, the West Window in Princeton University's Chapel; windows in the Washington National Cathedral, the Horn and Hardart windows in NY and PA; and closer to home, the cathedrals in Newark and Philadelphia, St. George's by the River and the former Bishop's Chapel in Trenton, NJ.

Well, through a mountain - Holy Cross Mountain in the Colorado Rockies.

The mountain is reached only with some difficulty, and in the early days of settlement of the Western United States the existence of a mountain emblazoned with a cross was legend. Eventually explorers documented the presence of the snow-crossed mountain made famous by an early photograph by William H. Jackson and later in paintings by Thomas Moran. The mountain itself became a popular tourist destination.

William Henry Jackson

Mount of the Holy Cross by Jackson

Thomas Moran

Longfellow had seen both Moran's painting and Jackson's photograph and some 18 years after the death of his wife, Frances (Fanny) by accidental fire, he penned The Cross of Snow in tribute to her. Longfellow had attempted to extinguish the flames of Frances' clothing which had ignited from a candle or spark from the fireplace without success. Longfellow's face was scarred and disfigured from burns he sustained during his rescue attempt. He stopped shaving after the burns healed and photographs taken after the tragic acccident show his prominent whiskers.

The Cross of Snow

In the long, sleepless watches of the night,

Longfellow

A gentle face--the face of one long dead--
Looks at me from the wall, where round its head
The night-lamp casts a halo of pale light.
Here in this room she died, and soul more white
Never through martyrdom of fire was led
To its repose; nor can in books be read
The legend of a life more benedight.
There is a mountain in the distant West
That, sun-defying, in its deep ravines
Displays a cross of snow upon its side.
Such is the cross I wear upon my breast
These eighteen years, through all the changing scenes
And seasons, changeless since the day she died.

A reminder that tonight's Stations of the Cross will be the Scriptural Stations of the Cross once prayed by John Paul II. Since they do not correspond to the traditional Stations we have hanging in our church, we will once again use artistic representations of these Scriptural passages to help our evening meditation.

The Sacrament of Reconcilation will also be availabe immediately after the Stations are prayed. Please join us.

Scholars agree that it was Jesus' raising of Lazarus that finally marked him for death and set the plans in motion to silence him forever. Jesus' fame already widespread, became even greater after this miracle, and his criticism of religious leaders of the day stirred hatred and conspiracy. In this morning's gospel, Jesus dines with Lazarus while a curious crowd, including some of the Scibes and Pharisees, seek a glimpse of the new celebrity.

This etching by Rembrandt depicts the drama of Jesus' raising of Lazarus and the almost dream like sleep of death from which Lazarus is beckoned by Jesus.